Child Health & Human Development Yearbook 2014

Children represent our future and healthy growth and development ought to be the prime concern of any society. President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924 he became the 30th President of the United States until 1929. He was in favour of the civil rights of African Americans, Catholics and in 1924 Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted full citizenship to all American Indians. Coolidge''s chronically ill mother died, perhaps from tuberculosis, when he was twelve years old and his sister died at the age of fifteen, when Coolidge was eighteen, which are maybe some of the reasons behind his proclamation for a national Child Health Day in 1928 (in 2014 it is child health day on 6 October, first Monday of October). Today about one in six children between the age 2-19 years is overweight with risk for serious health consequences like asthma, diabetes and heart disease and child health day is therefore also relevant today. In this Yearbook you will find interesting chapters on a broad spectrum relevant for health and human development in our time.